Samuel Theodor Gericke

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Samuel Theodor Gericke , also written “Gerike”; (* 1665 in Spandau ; † July 12, 1729 in Berlin ) was a German history and portrait painter and art theorist. He was a member, rector and director of the Prussian Academy of the Arts .

Epiphany meeting of Frederick I (Prussia, center) with August II (Poland, left) and Frederick IV of Denmark at the Prussian court , oil painting by Samuel Theodor Gericke, 1709

education

Gericke learned the art of painting from the Dutch painter and architect Rutger von Langerfeld , who had worked at the court of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm since 1678 . Further pupils of van Langerfeld were Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann and Langerfeld's son Wilhelm Langerfeld.

Gericke was also a student of the portrait painter Gédéon Romandon in Berlin from 1687–88 . In 1691 he went together with Elias Terwesten, brother of Augustin and Matthäus at the expense of Elector Friedrich III. from Brandenburg to Spain and Italy. In Rome he continued his education at Carlo Maratta's school ; In addition, he had “the best statues and antiquities in plaster or wax, for the benefit of the Berlin Academy, cast and molded” there on behalf of the elector. Gericke specialized in history painting.

Activity as an art theorist and painter

Back from Italy, Gericke was appointed court painter to Kurbrandenburg in 1696 . Three years later he was appointed professor at the adjunktus and 1694/1696 from the Brandenburg electors and later King in Prussia Frederick I founded the Berlin Academy of Arts and became director transactions he conducted 1705-06, 1708-09 and 1711-12.

His art theoretical treatises on “Die Perspektive” (1699, manuscript Berlin, Akademie der Künste), the “Position of the Model” (manuscript, 1705) and the “Examination of an Art Painting” (manuscript, 1705) as well as his translations of the "Theory of Painting" by CA du Fresnoy (Berlin 1699), the "Instructions for Drawing Art" by G. de Lairesse (1705) and the "Brief Constitution of Anatomy" by Tortebat (1706).

Of his decorative wall and ceiling paintings, the following are to be emphasized: the painting of the vaulted hare (dining or grotesque) hall in the castle of Oranienburg (Jean de Porrè provided a detailed description of these lost paintings in 1697), as well as ceiling paintings in the Castle of Caputh near Potsdam , in the (destroyed) Berlin Palace and in the (also destroyed) Palais Kreutz in Berlin. Religious paintings and altarpieces are also known by Gericke and various representative portraits (King Friedrich I, Great Elector, Epiphany , wife Eleonore Gericke, Polish hunter Johann Philipp and a few strangers) and portrait drawings. There are also a number of etchings and book illustrations.

Works

Painting by Friedrich I of Prussia
  • Painting by Friedrich Wilhelm I (1688–1740) as a child in a red hunter's coat and with the Order of the Black Eagle.
  • Painting by Friedrich I of Prussia
  • Painting Alliance portrait of the kings Frederick I in Prussia, Frederick IV of Denmark and August II in Pole , 1709. Illustrated by Scharmann, p. 14, and by: Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens (ed.): Schloss und Park Caputh . Berlin and Munich 2009, p. 18. (Today the painting hangs in the Caputh Castle, porcelain chamber.)
  • Engraving ideal view of the cabinet of antiquities . (Attributed to). From: Lorenz Beger, Thesaurus Brandenburgicus , 1704, p. 1. Reproduced by Guido Hinterkeuser, Das Berliner Schloss , Berlin 2003, p. 363 (catalog no. 152).
  • Engraving view of the castle chapel towards the south . (attributed). From: Lorenz Beger, Thesaurus Brandenburgicus , 1704, p. 3. Reproduced by Guido Hinterkeuser, Das Berliner Schloss , Berlin 2003, p. 364 (catalog no. 153).
  • Ceiling painting Fama as herald of the fame of the Brandenburg ruling house (signed and dated: 1687) with the portraits of the electoral couple. (The picture hangs today in the “Elector's antechamber”, room 24, Caputh Castle ). Shown in: Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (ed.): Caputh Castle and Park . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin and Munich 2009, p. 25.

literature

  • Ekhart Berckenhagen:  Gericke, Samuel Theodor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 290 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gericke, Samuel Theodor . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 13 : Gaab-Gibus . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1920, p. 461 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Karl Heinrich von Heinecken: News from artists and art things. Volume 1. Verlag Johann Paul Krauss, Vienna 1768.
  • Friedrich Nicolai: News from the builders, sculptors, copper engravers, painters, plasterers and other artists who have stayed in and around Berlin from the thirteenth century to now and whose works of art are still partly there. (Appendix to the “Description of the Royal Residence Cities Berlin and Potsdam”). Berlin and Stettin 1786.
  • Rudolf G. Scharmann: Charlottenburg Palace. Royal Prussia in Berlin. Prestel-Verlag, Munich et al., 4th edition 2010.

Web links

Commons : Samuel Theodor Gericke  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Nicolai: News from the builders, sculptors, copper engravers, painters, plasterers and other artists who have stayed in and around Berlin from the thirteenth century until now and whose works of art are still partly there. (Appendix to the “Description of the Royal Residence Cities Berlin and Potsdam”). Berlin and Stettin 1786, p. 88.
personal data
SURNAME Gericke, Samuel Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerike, Samuel Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, director of the Prussian Academy of the Arts
DATE OF BIRTH 1665
PLACE OF BIRTH Spandau
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1729
Place of death Berlin